Public perceptions of European research: an evaluation of European Researchers’ Night in Ireland

ABSTRACT

European Researchers’ Night is an annual celebration of research and its role in European society. It was first held in 2005 and now takes place in up to 300 locations across Europe with the aim of bringing researchers closer to the general public. European Researchers’ Night has benefited from more than €40 million in funding from the European Commission over the last decade. With the prospect of further funding being made available in the coming years it is important to determine if that investment is justified. In Ireland, European Researchers’ Night is the only event of its kind that collectively opens the doors of laboratories and research centres so that the public and media can spend an evening engaging with researchers and their work. In this paper we describe our evaluation of European Researchers’ Night in Ireland. The evaluation reveals the perceptions of European research among different publics and the strengths and weaknesses of European Researchers’ Night as a public engagement event.

KEYWORDS:

• Perceptions of science and technology
• Public engagement with science and technology
• European Researchers‘ Night

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their thanks to the reviewers of this paper for their constructive suggestions and critical insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Joseph Roche http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9981-1502

Notes

1. BT stands for ‘British Telecommunications’, the main sponsor of the event.

Additional information

Funding

European Researchers’ Night in Ireland in 2015 was funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through its coordination and support action: H2020-MSCA-NIGHT-2014 (Grant agreement no. 633292). This research would not have been possible without the support of Science Foundation Ireland’s Discover programme and the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations programme. The events themselves would not have happened without the support of the staff, students and volunteers in Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.